24/7: the human condition
Curated by Marlies Wirth, MAK
Ben Thorp Brown (New York), Verena Dengler (Vienna), Carola Dertnig (Vienna), Harm van den Dorpel (Berlin), Andreas Duscha (Vienna), Andreas Fogarasi (Vienna), Franz Graf (Vienna), Kathi Hofer (Vienna), Peter Jellitsch (Vienna), Lazar Lyutakov (Vienna), Mahony (Vienna/Berlin), Christian Mayer (Vienna), Ulrich Nausner (Vienna), Danica Phelps (New York), Lili Reynaud-Dewar (Paris), Valentin Ruhry (Vienna), Seth Weiner (Vienna), Anna Witt (Vienna)
MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art
Stubenring 5, 1010 Vienna, AT
MAK DESIGN LAB, MAK GALLERY
www.MAK.at
www.viennabiennale.org
A group exhibition as part of
VIENNA BIENNALE 2015: IDEAS FOR CHANGE
11 June – 4 October 2015
In her magnum opus, The Human Condition (1958, published in German as Vita activa oder Vom tätigen Leben in 1960), the philosopher Hannah Arendt describes the basic conditions of human life with three terms that can be used to describe the individual’s autonomous, active participation in society: “labor, work, and action.” While Arendt’s understanding of labor and work subsumes those (individual) activities that are directly necessary for the production of (material) goods, she describes (interactive) action—language and communication—as human beings’ greatest asset.
Today the human condition is marked by turmoil and restlessness. In the increasingly fast rhythm of our “non-stop society,” time is the determining factor, and time is money. The performance-driven society of the 21st century has long transcended the boundary between labor and leisure, the private and the public, and is still attempting to counteract its exhaustion by means of self-optimization. Disregarding the measures of chronobiology and the “inner clock” of human beings and nature, all activities are synchronized through the simultaneity of analog and digital experience.
Humans are engaged in a constant creative exchange with their environment and by absorbing and reorganizing images and information around the clock are part of the “social factory” in which private and public performance have inextricably merged. Life and work bring the same symptoms to light: overload, lack of sleep, the pressure of responsibility, and the loss of autonomy and freedom. Between longing and the pressure to perform, identification and opposition, recognition and exhaustion, the helplessness of the working subject is becoming apparent: precariousness and the stigma of not being able to adequately ensure our own existence are a constant threat because they are marked by the struggle to maintain the balance of body and mind as well as dreams and goals. The value and assessment of (invisible) human work are at the center of mechanisms of social evaluation; our activities are measured by their speed, accuracy, and efficiency—in short, people are measured against machines. But the complex processes that constitute human decisions and thus our ability to act cannot be taken over by artificial intelligence. Our true desire is self-determination, to actively and individually shape our own life, our environment, and society. Action (political and artistic)—informed by the immateriality of communication and empathy—cannot be definitively evaluated in terms of performance and therefore attain the status of permanence. It is with this status of permanence that human beings are inscribing themselves 24/7 into the cultural narrative of the Anthropocene, the age of human activity.
The group exhibition 24/7: the human condition includes existing works and newly produced works by artists of a younger generation in the context of the art scene in Vienna and beyond and features a wide range of artistic engagement with various aspects of a cultural understanding of labor, work, and action.
Curated by Marlies Wirth, MAK
Ben Thorp Brown (New York), Verena Dengler (Vienna), Carola Dertnig (Vienna), Harm van den Dorpel (Berlin), Andreas Duscha (Vienna), Andreas Fogarasi (Vienna), Franz Graf (Vienna), Kathi Hofer (Vienna), Peter Jellitsch (Vienna), Lazar Lyutakov (Vienna), Mahony (Vienna/Berlin), Christian Mayer (Vienna), Ulrich Nausner (Vienna), Danica Phelps (New York), Lili Reynaud-Dewar (Paris), Valentin Ruhry (Vienna), Seth Weiner (Vienna), Anna Witt (Vienna)
MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art
Stubenring 5, 1010 Vienna, AT
MAK DESIGN LAB, MAK GALLERY
www.MAK.at
www.viennabiennale.org
A group exhibition as part of
VIENNA BIENNALE 2015: IDEAS FOR CHANGE
11 June – 4 October 2015
MAK GALLERY, Exhibition View, 2015
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
in the front: Kathi Hofer, Offering, 2015
Courtesy of Gabriele Senn Galerie
in the back: Danica Phelps, Cost of Love, 2011
Aquarell and pencil on paper (mounted on wood)
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Hubert Winter
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Danica Phelps, Cost of Love (panel #6), 2011
Aquarell and pencil on paper (mounted on wood)Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Hubert Winter
MAK GALLERY, Exhibition View, 2015
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Ulrich Nausner, Limitation (MAK), 2015
Vinyl lettering
© Ulrich Nausner
in the front: Harm van den Dorpel, Event Listeners, 2015
in the back: Peter Jellitsch, Data Drawings, 2015
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Peter Jellitsch, Data Drawings (29–33), 2015
Crayon, acrylic and lacquer on paper
Unique pieces
© Peter Jellitsch/Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Harm van den Dorpel, Event Listeners, 2015
Software (OS X screensaver), loops
Edition: 100
© Harm van den Dorpel
MAK Contemporary Art Collection
MAK GALLERY, Exhibition View, 2015
in the front: Kathi Hofer, Offering, 2015
in the back: Anna Witt, Gleitzeit, 2010
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Kathi Hofer, detail from the installation Offering, 2015
© Kathi Hofer
Courtesy of Gabriele Senn Galerie
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Anna Witt, Gleitzeit, 2010
3-channel HD video, color
© Anna Witt
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin
Carola Dertnig, Stroller 1–3, 2006–2008
Video, sound
Camera and editing: Katharina Cibulka
© Carola Dertnig
Courtesy of Galerie Andreas Huber
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Carola Dertnig, Still from Stroller 1–3, 2006–2008
Video, sound
Camera and editing: Katharina Cibulka
© Carola Dertnig
Courtesy of Galerie Andreas Huber
MAK DESIGN LAB, Exhibition View, 2015
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Christian Mayer, laengwedzh, 2015
Installation
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Christian Mayer, Penning a note to the ages, 2015
Original press photos (1938–1941), UV print on matte, Lucite frame
© Christian Mayer/Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Mezzanin
Christian Mayer, ULAM, 2013
Video
© Christian Mayer
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Nagel Draxler
Franz Graf, OBRIGADoDENADA, 2011/2015
Graphite, ink on canvas, aluminum frame
© Franz Graf
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Krinzinger
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Mahony, We are the world, 2010
Installation
Metal, wood, ink, water, light bulb, cable, speaker
© Mahony
Courtesy of Galerie Emanuel Layr
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Valentin Ruhry, Working the City, 2007–2012
Installation, Screen capture video; voice: Martyn Reynolds
Courtesy of Christine König Galerie
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Valentin Ruhry, Working the City, Skopje 2007, 2012
C-Print
© Valentin Ruhry
Courtesy of Christine König Galerie
MAK DESIGN LAB, Exhibition View, 2015
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Seth Weiner, so only the shadows are left described, 2015
Site-specific Installation, MDF plates, LED lights
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Kathi Hofer, Detail from the installation Offering, 2015
Courtesy of Gabriele Senn Galerie
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
in the front: Lazar Lyutakov, Feiyue, 2013
6 pairs of canvas shoes
in the back: Christian Mayer, Mauth Maep, 2015
Porto slate, chalk, dimensions variable
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Lazar Lyutakov, Detail from Feiyue, 2013
© Lazar Lyutakov
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
in the front: Ben Thorp Brown, Untitled (Fists), 2015
Recycled Lucite, ink
in the back: Ben Thorp Brown, Toymakers, 2014
HD Video
© Ben Thorp Brown
Courtesy of the artist and Bischoff Projects
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Ben Thorp Brown, Untitled (Fists), 2015
Recycled Lucite, ink
© Ben Thorp Brown
Courtesy of the artist and Bischoff Projects
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
MAK DESIGN LAB, Exhibition View, 2015
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
in the back: Andreas Fogarasi, LED China, 2012
C-Prints, series of 6
© Andreas Fogarasi
Courtesy of Galerie Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
in the front: Andreas Fogarasi, Skizzen [Sketches], 2015
Marble, tiles, plastic tape
© Andreas Fogarasi
Courtesy of Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Andreas Fogarasi, Detail from LED China, 2012
C-Prints, series of 6
© Andreas Fogarasi
Courtesy of Galerie Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Andreas Fogarasi, Skizzen [Sketches], 2015
Marble, tiles, plastic tape
© Andreas Fogarasi
Courtesy of Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Verena Dengler, Sponsors, 2001–2014
Embroidery, framed
© Verena Dengler/Photo: Patrick Anthofer
MAK Contemporary Art Collection
Lili Reynaud-Dewar, What a pity you’re an architect, Monsieur. You’d make a sensational partner (After Josephine Baker),
2011
HD video
© Lili Reynaud-Dewar
Courtesy of Galerie Emanuel Layr
Andreas Duscha, … we’ll smash all clocks, forbid all calendars, and only count hours and moons by the flower clock, only by
flowering and fruit, 2015 *
Black and white photographs on Duratrans, glass vitrines
* [quote from Leonce und Lena by Georg Büchner]
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Andreas Duscha, … we’ll smash all clocks, forbid all calendars, and only count hours and moons by the flower clock, only by
flowering and fruit, 2015 *
Black and white photographs on Duratrans, glass vitrines
* [quote from Leonce und Lena by Georg Büchner]
Photo: MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
“I GOT UP” the Japanese artist On Kawara stamped along with the respective time of day on a series of postcards that he sent to friends and artist colleagues every day between 1968 and 1979. His days began with this apparently natural, insignificant act, which characterizes the “conditio humana” of a person’s life both intimately and politically: 24 hours a day, seven times a week.
In her magnum opus, The Human Condition (1958, published in German as Vita activa oder Vom tätigen Leben in 1960), the philosopher Hannah Arendt describes the basic conditions of human life with three terms that can be used to describe the individual’s autonomous, active participation in society: “labor, work, and action.” While Arendt’s understanding of labor and work subsumes those (individual) activities that are directly necessary for the production of (material) goods, she describes (interactive) action—language and communication—as human beings’ greatest asset.
Today the human condition is marked by turmoil and restlessness. In the increasingly fast rhythm of our “non-stop society,” time is the determining factor, and time is money. The performance-driven society of the 21st century has long transcended the boundary between labor and leisure, the private and the public, and is still attempting to counteract its exhaustion by means of self-optimization. Disregarding the measures of chronobiology and the “inner clock” of human beings and nature, all activities are synchronized through the simultaneity of analog and digital experience.
Humans are engaged in a constant creative exchange with their environment and by absorbing and reorganizing images and information around the clock are part of the “social factory” in which private and public performance have inextricably merged. Life and work bring the same symptoms to light: overload, lack of sleep, the pressure of responsibility, and the loss of autonomy and freedom. Between longing and the pressure to perform, identification and opposition, recognition and exhaustion, the helplessness of the working subject is becoming apparent: precariousness and the stigma of not being able to adequately ensure our own existence are a constant threat because they are marked by the struggle to maintain the balance of body and mind as well as dreams and goals. The value and assessment of (invisible) human work are at the center of mechanisms of social evaluation; our activities are measured by their speed, accuracy, and efficiency—in short, people are measured against machines. But the complex processes that constitute human decisions and thus our ability to act cannot be taken over by artificial intelligence. Our true desire is self-determination, to actively and individually shape our own life, our environment, and society. Action (political and artistic)—informed by the immateriality of communication and empathy—cannot be definitively evaluated in terms of performance and therefore attain the status of permanence. It is with this status of permanence that human beings are inscribing themselves 24/7 into the cultural narrative of the Anthropocene, the age of human activity.
The group exhibition 24/7: the human condition includes existing works and newly produced works by artists of a younger generation in the context of the art scene in Vienna and beyond and features a wide range of artistic engagement with various aspects of a cultural understanding of labor, work, and action.